ABU DHABI: Tenaga Nasional could be legally required to buy renewable energy under new laws being drawn up by the Government, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said.

The Prime Minister said the move would increase the availability of renewable energy in Malaysia by 100-fold from the current 50MW to 2,000MW by 2020.

He said one of the mechanisms the Government was looking into under the new law was “feed-in tariffs.”

Feed-in tariffs makes it compulsory for regional or national utility companies like Tenaga Nasional Bhd to buy renewable electricity such as electricity generated from solar, thermal, wind, wave or tidal power, biomass, hydropower and geothermal power from eligible participants.

“Currently, we are in the process of instituting a renewable energy law and one of the mechanisms we are looking into is feed-in tariffs to promote the usage of this type of energy,” he said in his keynote address at the World Future Energy Summit here yesterday.

Najib said the Government already had the Small Renewable Energy Programme, which provided for a higher purchasing price for electricity generated under this initiative by the grid operator.

“We have more than enough sunlight in Malaysia and increased use of solar power will be promoted aggressively,” he said, referring to the Suria 1000 programme which was launched in 2007.

The Suria 1000 programme allows houses and commercial buildings to become part of the country’s renewable energy initiative by producing energy through solar power.

Najib said a study has been commissioned to restructure and realign the Malaysian electricity sector.

“The findings will help lay the foundation for a more efficient industry through market mechanisms and liberalisation,” he said.

Najib pointed out that he had set up the Energy, Green Technology and Water Ministry last year to spearhead Malaysia’s transformation into a green nation.

“We will be looking at four main sectors to implement green technologies, namely energy, transport, buildings and water,” he said.

Najib said for transportation, the Government aimed at reducing carbon footprint by enhancing public transport.

He said energy efficient buildings have been promoted for some time and the introduction of the Green Building Index would hopefully see more buildings going green in Malaysia soon.

Besides Najib, the other heads of state or government attending the four-day summit are Greek Presi-dent Karolos Papoulias, Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

For the record, here’s what global-warming-decided energy policy has achieved in Europe (dozens of billions of Euros lost to higher energy costs) and Australia (doubled electricity costs in 5 years) and soon to be America and Canada.

By constructing the magniwork power generator, you will be able to generate completely free electric energy, meaning , create energy without needing any source of renewable or non-renewable energy. The generator powers itself and creates energy by itself, without requiring solar energy, heat, water, coal or any kind of resource. This generator powers itself and works indefinitely, without stopping, creating a large amount of energy.

Carbon dioxide is “essentially harmless” to human beings and good for plants. So now will you stop worrying about global warming?

Utah’s House of Representatives apparently has at least. Officially the most Republican state in America, its political masters have adopted a resolution condemning “climate alarmists”, and disputing any scientific basis for global warming.

The measure, which passed by 56-17, has no legal force, though it was predictably claimed by climate change sceptics as a great victory in the wake of the controversy caused by a mistake over Himalayan glaciers in the UN’s landmark report on global warming.

well i guess i’m the only greenie speaking here..but damn, people. wake up. are you saying that our current lifestyle is in any way sustainable? do you think the human race can survive another 1000 years in a business-as-usual scenario? we haven’t had to pay the environmental costs of anything we’ve done and i’d say you’re in denial if you haven’t personally felt at any time that the climate in malaysia has changed a tiny bit. we’re not just talking about global warming. it’s climate CHANGE. it may get cooler in other places..but it’s still a change from what it’s been for the past..100 years? and yes i know climate change is also a natural phenomenon. but either way we still have to adapt. u’d also be living in a dreamworld if you thought that there was enough oil/coal/gas to sustain our energy needs for the future.

greenie, don’t look at everything as extremes – either someone is totally for green issues or is totally against it.

I can’t speak for anyone else, but for myself I am not suggesting we continue on without changing for 1000 years – merely until technology improves to the point where a switch is not just inevitable, but also ‘natural’ (i.e. people choose it because the benefits outweigh the costs, instead of being forced to adopt it through coercive laws). We saw it with the transition from wood to coal to petro-products where nobody had a gun to his head – we will see it again with a switch from fossil fuels to better energy sources in due time.

However, at this present moment, most ‘green’ technologies are vastly inefficient – especially when you include the energy and resources used to make wind turbines and solar panels. See for example Wind Energy’s Ghosts for very illustrative photos. It is just not possible that we stop using fossil fuels and rely mostly on alternative energy.

okay..well i don’t think i’m as extreme as others are. being quite practical and realistic here that we need real change and movement towards a renewable energy future (as well as other sustainability aspects) and do whatever we can now and not wait for technology to catch up. the only way it can improve is if we use current technology to see how it can be improved. and the reason why wind power is still not popular is because of its initial capital outlay and maintenance. of course it will continue to be more expensive than fossil fuels because the economic drivers are not there – hence the need for subsidies.

furthermore, global warming and other environmental issues are not disconnected. i don’t think it’s fair to say you’re a global warming skeptic but environmentally-concerned in other issues. everything is related directly or indirectly – from waste to water and resource consumption. and i wouldn’t say this is mostly naturally-driven either. the impacts have been worse in the past 100 years. and that may seem gradual in a human lifespan but in the bigger picture, it is a tiny micro-second of the earth’s lifetime.

Well, IMHO if global warming is not human-caused, then the trillions of dollars, thousands of jetliner miles and countless hours of public attention are being wasted on Copenhagen and carbon caps instead of preserving the rainforests, providing clean water and breaking the secret of clean fusion energy (Wikipedia for Polywell Reactor for what the US Navy is funding right now).